From Within Not Above By Mike Powers, July 2, 2017

From Within Not Above

By Mike Powers
July 2, 2017

Scriptures

Genesis 22:1-14

Romans 6: 13-23

Jack was walking along a steep cliff one day when he accidentally got too close to the edge and fell. On the way down he grabbed a branch, which temporarily stopped his fall. He looked down and to his horror saw that the canyon fell straight down for more than a thousand feet.
          He couldn't hang onto the branch forever, and there was no way for him to climb up the steep wall of the cliff. So Jack began yelling for help, hoping that someone passing by would hear him and lower a rope or something.
          HELP! HELP! Is anyone up there? "HELP!"
          He yelled for a long time, but no one heard him. He was about to give up when he heard a voice. “Jack, Jack. Can you hear me?"

"Yes, yes! I can hear you. I'm down here!"

"I can see you, Jack. Are you all right?"

"Yes, but who are you, and where are you?

"I am the Lord, Jack. I'm everywhere."

"The Lord? You mean, GOD?"

"That's Me."

"God, please help me! I promise if you'll get me down from here, I'll stop sinning. I'll be a really good person. I'll serve You for the rest of my life."

"Easy on the promises, Jack. Let's get you off from there; then we can talk."

"Now, here's what I want you to do. Listen carefully."

"I'll do anything, Lord. Just tell me what to do."

"Okay. Let go of the branch."

"What?"

"I said, let go of the branch. Just trust Me. Let go."

There was a long silence.

Finally, Jack yelled, "HELP! HELP! IS ANYONE ELSE UP THERE?"

This is literally a cliffhanger, isn’t it?  We are left wondering what happens to Jack.  We might ask ourselves, “Why doesn’t God just pick up Jack and place him back in a safe location?  Why does Jack have to do something really scary like letting go of the branch?  Why does having faith in God require such difficult choices?”

Speaking of difficult choices, in our first Scripture reading we heard the story of Abraham being called upon by the Lord to sacrifice his son Isaac. This story is one of the most famous in the Bible.  Notable renaissance painters have provided us with their interpretation of this event.  Many churches have this scene depicted in their stain glass windows.

While the story is well-known, some aspects can be difficult to understand.  This story can raise questions such as, “Why would God inflict such anguish on such faithful servants as Abraham and Isaac by making a demand for Abraham to sacrifice his own son?  Or perhaps, “How does this reconcile with Jesus’ later message of love and peace?”  Once again the question, “Why does having faith in God require such difficult choices?”

We need to be able answer questions like these for both for ourselves and others. 

Very importantly, we know that God was not looking for Abraham to kill Isaac.  God stopped that before it occurred.  What God was doing, it seems, was posing a test of Abraham’s faith.  He was presenting Abraham with a difficult choice—to demonstrate his faith in God, Abraham was asked to give up his son whom he loved.   Abraham was being asked in the most difficult circumstance imaginable to trust God in spite of the fact that what God was asking, in addition to being horrific, also seemed to be a betrayal of the Covenant that He had made to Abraham that through his son Isaac a great nation would be created. 

Through faith we know that God never betrays us.  Great leaders are put through great trials and we know that Abraham was a great leader.  We know that he maintained his faith and God maintained His Covenant to make Abraham the head of a great nation through his son Isaac.  That Covenant was ultimately fulfilled in totality by Jesus’ death which in turn served to establish a New Covenant through which all of us have access to the gift of eternal life.

  Many stories in the Old Testament foreshadow events that occur in the New Testament.  The parallels between the story of Abraham and Isaac with that of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross are hard to miss. Abraham is called upon to sacrifice his son Isaac in service to God but in the end Isaac is spared and continued to live to father a great nation.  God the Father did in fact sacrifice His son Jesus for the salvation of all people and Jesus lived on after rising from the dead on that first Easter morning to make the Kingdom of Heaven available to us all.

As difficult as the challenge was that Abraham faced, we can see that God has done all that He had asked of Abraham and more. 

At times we are each Abraham.  We each have and will again face something that tests our faith. 

·        It could be deciding whether or not to pursue a temptation when we know we should not. 

·        It could be deciding whether to do something that would help others but calls for personal sacrifice.

·        It could be deciding in the wake of a serious health issue, a crippling financial setback, a devastating personal betrayal, a senseless tragedy or any number of other ways that events can deal us a significant setback--deciding whether to use that as a reason to turn away from God or to embrace our faith more tightly. 

We don’t know why life has to be difficult.  We don’t know why bad things happen to good people.  But we know they do. 

We also don’t know why God felt it necessary to set such a powerful example of sacrifice for us as to send His own son Jesus to suffer a humiliating and painful death.  We know the purpose was to make eternal salvation available for each of us.  But, you would think there would be an easier way for God, who is capable of everything, to make this happen.

There must be something very valuable associated with the struggle; with confronting adversity.    

It is not necessary for God to challenge our faith to determine how strong it is.  He already knows.  Perhaps, God puts life’s challenges in front of us so that we can find out more about ourselves. 

The famous and highly successful UCLA basketball coach John Wooden said, “Adversity is the state in which man most easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.

Some would argue that since God made us in His image, knowing ourselves is a necessary step in knowing God and a deep relationship with God is not possible without truly knowing ourselves.

Adversity is a crucible in which things which can obstruct our view of ourselves are boiled away and the true nature of our relationship with God is uncovered.    Saying that one has faith in easy times is a faith that is of uncertain strength.  Living one’s faith during times of trial fortifies the bond that we have with God.

Faith is an on-going journey that is molded and shaped by experiences that we encounter.  During our time here on earth, we will never achieve the perfect level of faith, there is always room to grow.  Conversely, God is forgiving and always loves us. There is no act that we may have done in the past which can forever disqualify us from God’s grace.  Churchill once said in a different context but the principle remains appropriate, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”  God definitely wants us to continue.   

In today’s reading from his epistle to the Romans, Paul is saying that with true faith we are led as a natural consequence to express our love for God.  With faith, we become slaves of righteousness rather than slaves to sin. 

Faith in God is the bright light that chases away the darkness of sin.  With true faith, our desire to serve God is not based upon a feeling of obligation or fear of punishment but rather of love.   In other words, true faith grows from within our hearts; it is not something we decide to have as a means to appease an omnipotent power watching us from above.  God is not here to catch us if we do something wrong.  He is with us as a helper so we can do something good.  True faith comes from within ourselves, it is not imposed from above. 

There is a popular notion that when we die that we approach the pearly gates and meet with St. Peter who pulls out a scroll which provides an account of all of the good deeds and misdeeds in our life.  The idea being that if we reached a certain threshold of good in excess of bad, the gates would open up for us.  If the score went the other way, well let’s just say we might get pointed to an elevator that only goes down and we won’t need to bother to bring a jacket.

But our faith tells us that the everlasting life with God that lies beyond those gates is a treasure that exceeds our ability to comprehend and that no amount of good that we could do would be a fair exchange.  We cannot earn our way into heaven, our path to this eternal life is strictly through our faith and God’s grace.

This can be puzzling to people.  They might say, “Hey that’s great, that means I don’t need to be nice to anyone. I don’t need to contribute or volunteer to church missions or charitable organizations.  All I have to do is just say that I believe in God and be done with it.”  In fact, in our second scripture reading today from Paul’s letter to the Romans, this exact question is addressed.

And Paul’s answer was, “By no means.”

By no means.  When we have faith in God we want to act as His instruments here on earth and be helpful to others.  Much like how we feel with people that we love—spouses, partners, parents, children and friends—we don’t help them because we think they will do something for us.  We help them simply because we love them.  It is not a quid pro quo.  It is not an exchange. 

Faith is a feeling of “I want to” and not a feeling of “I have too or else”.

Faith comes first and from that goodness naturally flows.

With the arrival of our new pastoral leadership that we are celebrating today, this seems to be an appropriate time for us to commit to being a source of goodness for our church.  I want to acknowledge and give thanks to the way that so many members of our congregation have stepped up and helped this church overcome challenges and move forward in the past and particularly over the last couple of years.  Because of those efforts, we are in a good place from which to grow together as a church family. 

But we cannot just sit back and wait for Pastor Cindy to do it for us.  We can’t sit back and say, “Oh good, now we can relax.  Pastor Cindy will take care of this.  By no means.  We all need to pitch in even if it puts us outside our comfort zone.  So volunteer to help out at the state fair, or agree to teach a Sunday School class or join a covenant group, or help out at Wednesday Night Live this coming year.  Look for a mission and engage.  Faith is not a passive state; it is an active catalyst.    

Paul tells us that without faith, we are slaves to sinful ways saying, “the wages of which are death”.  A life without faith can leave us untethered and drifting in no particular direction.    Faith connects us with the Pentecostal drive of the Holy Spirit which connects us with our greater purpose.  It tells us that we are playing a role in something much larger than ourselves. Faith provides meaning to life and with faith and by way of God’s grace, we will have the free gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.   

Abraham had faith.  Even though he did not understand why and the task before him was exceedingly difficult, he had faith that God loved him and Abraham proceeded on the basis of that love.

Jack the mythical hiker was willing to promise to God that he would be a good person if only God would just help him out of the jam that he was in.  God brushed that offer aside and was willing to help him without extracting any such promises.  Jack simply needed to have faith in God, let go of the branch and he would have been saved.   

So that raises a question, how would Jack know that it was God telling him to let go of the branch?  How do we know when God is speaking to us?

By way of the Holy Spirit, God is instilled in each of us and there is a communication channel called prayer.  Often times we think of that as a one-way discussion where we give thanks to God for blessings or ask for His intercession to help solve problems—the communication is going from us to God. 

But it may be even more important that we engage in prayerful listening to let God provide us with guidance.  God is our own personal built-in GPS system.  We need to learn to listen and trust. But in order to tune in and hear this message, we need faith.  So what is faith?

·        Faith is not a performance to impress God or anyone else, faith is a growing, organic thing which permeates us from within.  Faith is inner peace.

·        Faith is not acting out of a fear of punishment but rather seeking to be an agent for good, to act as God’s instrument to serve others in our own unique way. Faith is purpose.

·        Faith is not about keeping score, faith is all about celebrating God’s blessings in times of joy and leaning on Him in times of distress. Faith is trust.

·        Faith is not a bargaining chip to be used in negotiating with God by saying if you God do something for me, then I will do something for you.  Faith is unconditional love.

·        Faith is not an obligation thrust upon us, faith is the path we willingly pursue towards the blessings of God’s grace.  Faith is joy.

Rev. Charles Albert Tindley was an African-American who was a prominent Methodist minister in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries.  Rev. Tindley wrote hymns which lifted the spirits and brought joy to his congregants who were largely African Americans who had moved from the experience of slavery in the South to another form of racial discrimination as they settled in the cities of the North.  As such, Reverend Tindley’s congregants had difficult lives and could have chosen to use that as an excuse to turn away from God.  But they kept their faith; looking forward to the day when they would enjoy the everlasting peace that comes by way of faith and God’s grace.   

I want to close by reading an excerpt from one of his hymns entitled “Beams of Heaven” which captures this message of hope. 

Burdens now may crush me down, disappointments all around;
Troubles speak in mournful sigh, sorrow through a tear-stained eye.
There is a world where pleasure reigns, no mourning soul shall roam its plains,
And to that land of peace and glory
I shall want to go someday.

I do not know how long 'twill be, nor what the future holds for me,
But this I know: if Jesus leads me,
i shall get home someday.

And that is my wish for each of us.  Make the difficult choices.  Have faith in God. Love each other.  Support each other in times of trouble.  Celebrate together in times of joy.  Seek forgiveness when we stumble.  Grant forgiveness when we are wronged. Be engaged.  Embrace our faith; find our mission and do it as best we can to serve each other, our church and God.  With faith and blessed with God’s grace, we shall all get home someday! 

Amen.